The present invention relates to a position finder enabling a person to find his or her current position in relatively large areas, such as a plant and a large factory. The present invention relates also to a measuring apparatus with such position finder and to a measuring system using the measuring apparatus.
A steam-utilizing plant is an example of a large-premise plant. A steam-utilizing plant includes a large number of steam traps which automatically discharge drain from piping. Steam leakage from the steam traps decreases the productivity of the plant. It is, therefore, very important to periodically monitor the steam traps to know whether they are operating well and to systematically analyze the results of monitoring.
Steam leakage is usually measured by way of a portable measuring apparatus. An operator goes to locations where steam traps are mounted with such measuring apparatus and sees whether or not any steam is leaking from a steam trap and, if steam is leaking, measures how much steam is leaking. Measurement data obtained is stored in a memory of the measuring apparatus. When the operator finishes measurements for given steam traps, he or she brings the measuring apparatus to a control center and inputs the measurement data into a host computer disposed in the control center. The host computer analyzes the measurement data of respective steam traps obtained by the measuring apparatus.
For measuring steam leakage from a number of traps, an operator is to know where in a plant traps are mounted and what types of traps they are. For that purpose, drawings or maps on which locations of the respective traps in the plant are taken with and referred to by the operator when measuring steam leakage. However, the use of such drawings is inefficient. Also, it is sometimes very difficult for the operator to immediately find where in the plant he or she is from such drawings, which also lowers the working efficiency.
Frequently, plural operators are employed to measure steam leakage from traps. They may independently and simultaneously make required measurements for traps. In such a case, it may sometimes happen that one operator measures steam leakage from a trap which has already been measured by other operator.
Further, sometimes measuring operation is done by outside people who are not familiar with the plant premise. Therefore, the measuring operation is not done efficiently.
The larger plants are, the more these problems are.
Measurements obtained by measuring apparatuses are transferred together to a host computer after measurement for all or a predetermine number of traps has been done. Accordingly, it is impossible to know the progress of the measuring operation and the results of measurements in real time.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a position finder with which an operator can find his or her current location in a large-premise plant, e.g. a steam-utilizing plant. Another object of the present invention is to provide a measuring apparatus and system, which makes use of such position finder in making measurements for devices so that measurements can be taken with a high efficiency.
A position finder according to the present invention includes an identification data taking arrangement. A plurality of identification devices are disposed at appropriate locations within a given area. Each identification device has its own identification data. The identification data taking arrangement takes such identification data from each identification device. The position finder further includes a first memory in which information relating to the respective ones of the identification devices has been stored. The information stored in the first memory includes the identification data. A first display control arrangement causes an area picture showing the given area to be displayed on a display screen of a display, and also causes symbols for the respective identification devices to be displayed at locations on the area picture corresponding to the locations of the respective identification devices in the predetermined area.
When the identification data of any one of the identification devices is taken by the identification data taking arrangement, the first display control arrangement checks the taken identification data with the information stored in the first memory to identify the identification device corresponding to the identification data taken by the identification taking arrangement and make the display of the symbol for the identified identification device in a different manner from the others.
The position finder may be provided with a second display control arrangement which, when an external information-display command is applied to it, causes part or all of the information stored in the first memory relating to the identified identification device, to be displayed in, for example, an alphanumeric form, on the display screen.
The first display control arrangement may be so arranged as to be capable of changing the scale on which the area is displayed on the display screen in response to an external command to change the display scale.
If there are plural areas, plural area pictures corresponding to the areas are provided. The first display control arrangement may be so arranged as to cause, when the identification data taking arrangement takes identification data of an identification device in one of the plural areas, the area picture of that area, where the identification device is disposed, to be displayed on the display screen.
The position finder according to the present invention can be used in a measuring apparatus with measuring device for measuring a given physical quantity of an object. In this case, the identification device is mounted on or near the object.
The identification device may have, as the identification data, data relating to an object in association with which the identification device is mounted, and the information stored in the first memory includes a parameter required for precise measurement of the given physical quantity of the object. The measuring apparatus may include an arrangement for retrieving a parameter, from the first memory, relating to the object corresponding to the identification data taken in by the identification data taking arrangement, and automatically setting the retrieved parameter in the measuring device.
The measuring apparatus may be provided with a first storage control arrangement for causing measurement data obtained by measuring the given physical quantity of the object to be stored in the first memory. In this case, a third display control arrangement is also provided for determining whether or not each object has its physical quantity measured already, based on the stored content which has been stored in the first memory by the first storage control means, and causing the symbol for an object of which the physical quantity has been already measured to be displayed in a different manner than an object of which the physical quantity has not yet been measured. The stored content which the determination is based on may be whether or not the data obtained by the measurement is in the first memory.
The measuring apparatus may be provided with a fourth display control arrangement which operates, based on the stored content, e.g. the measurements for objects, stored in the first memory by the first storage control arrangement, to cause the symbol of a normally operating object to be displayed in a different manner than a faulty object.
The measuring apparatus of the present invention may be provided with a first transmitter arrangement for transmitting measurement data relating to the measurements of the given physical quantity of an object obtained by the measuring device. A measuring system can be provided by a combination of the measuring apparatus having the first transmitter arrangement and a host device having a first receiver arrangement for receiving the measurement data from the measuring apparatus. The host device is provided with a second memory for storing therein information relating to objects whose physical quantities are measured, and a second storage control arrangement for causing the measurement data received by the first receiver arrangement to be stored in the second memory.
In the measuring system according to the present invention, the measuring apparatus may be provided with, in addition to the first transmitter arrangement, a second receiver arrangement for receiving externally supplied renewal data. In this case, the first storage control arrangement of the measuring apparatus causes the renewal data to be stored in the first memory, too. A plurality of such measuring apparatuses are provided. The first receiver arrangement of the host device is adapted to receive measurement data from each of the measuring apparatuses. The host device is provided with a second transmitter arrangement for transmitting the measurement data received from each measuring apparatus as the renewal data back to the other measuring apparatuses.